Matters of Gravity

Bukatman's passion, evinced throughout these essays, for sci-fi films and pulp comic books is infectious ... --The Guardian, 26 June, 2004 Everyone knows that academics are a major species within the genus Geekus, but few celebrate this fact as eloquently and energetically as Bukatman, whose new collection of essays on special effects, comic books, science fiction, and Hollywood musicals includes a photo of a well-worn Superman T-shirt, credited to 'collection of the author.' ... Bukatman's approach [has] an endearing bedside manner, a Gibsonian penchant for phenomenological brain-games, and a determined muddying of boundaries between the writer and his subject. --Ed Halter, Village Voice Bukatman ... can turn a phrase like no one else... [C]ompelling and heady... --Dene Grigar, Leonardo ...[W]ell-written and worthy... The underexamined medium of the comics clearly deserved a writer of his breadth and depth ... --Michael R. Mosher, Leonardo Matters of Gravity [is] a book that contains much worth thinking about for cultural-studies scholars, sf scholars, and those of us who just like thinking about the world around us. --Brooks Landon, Science Fiction Studies Bukatman's voice and personal perspective succeed in tying everything together, making the book a rewarding and intriguing read. --Steffen Hankte, Journal of Popular Culture Matters of Gravity is a collection worth owning (at its modest price), a thoughtful grab bag that has some significant things to say about superheroes and special effects... Bukatman's sensitivity to issues of race, class, and gender enriches his remarks throughout. --Dan Shaw, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism The superhero story and cyberpunk [are] two traditions that are, among others, superbly analysed in Scott Bukatman's collection of essays... Bukatman's passion, evinced throughout these essays, for sci-fi films and pulp comic-books is infectious... --Steven Poole, The Guardian [T]his book can be extremely useful for those aspiring college freshman composition teachers who are interested in teaching a course on science fiction, popular culture, or urban modernity, and who have been long waiting for exactly such an expert guideline. --Jie Lu, Extrapolation [S]timulating and often startlingly brilliant... [I]ndividual chapters display what in a superhero would be metahuman vision, piercingly far-reaching but also capable of narrowing to a microscopic, diamond-hard focus. --Will Brooker, Popular Communication [T]he book as a whole lays a groundwork for understanding special effects as a genre of sort that cuts across media; each variety of popular entertainment he addresses provides its own glimpse at a different system at work in modernity's body, and each piece in this collection adds another transparency to layer over the last to provide a fuller picture of that body. -- Mary Helen Kolisnyk, Film-Philosophy I like [Matters of Gravity] for its enthusiasm; its imaginative guide to new avenues of technology, the body, and popular culture; and its reminder that the irrational has its place in technology. --George Basalla, Technology and Culture Physically, the book is a handsome volume. Readable, well designed, with a good set of plates and illustrations, it should satisfy the general public interest in films, comics, or popular culture. Academic readers should be pleased with an excellent set of annotations about comic, film, or cyberspace theory, with a good bibliography and an adequate index... Matters of Gravity ... will also be of value to stodgy academics by reminding them that today's great books were yesterday's trash, and that again, comics can articulate a political, social, utopian message worth examining. -- Oscar R. Marti, Utopian Studies